The Hindu Business Line : Insurance broking firms facing staff shortage

Hyderabad, Oct. 2 Insurance brokerage firms are facing shortage of manpower to expand their operations. They are seeking some relaxation of qualification and appointment norms by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to tide over the paucity.

“On an average, every broking firm in India is in need of a minimum of 10 qualified personnel to man its branches across the country. But there is no availability and this is hindering expansion of brokerage operations,” Mr Sanjiv Bajaj, Joint Managing Director of Bajaj Capital, told Business Line here recently.

There are about 300 broking firms which operate over 1,000 branches in different cities/towns (as per industry figures). The IRDA has prescribed certain norms for appointment of agents by broker firms which include at least 100 hours of training in life and non-life business spread over a minimum of 18 working days with qualified faculty and examination to test their knowledge.

“However, there are many difficulties here such as high cost of training (fee is above Rs 50,000 in the training institutes) and unwillingness of prospective agents to go through a very formal procedure. The regulator should allow senior managers in broking firms to handle agents’ training,” Mr Bajaj said.

According to Mr A.K. Sethi, Chief Executive Officer of RIA Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, there should be some flexibility in the qualifications and appointment norms. “With de-tariffing the competition in general insurance has gone up and more branch expansion is the key now. So, there is an immediate need to address the shortage,” Mr Sohanlal Kadel, Chairman and Managing Director, Kadel Insurance Brokers, said.

When contacted, Mr J Hari Narayan, Chairman of IRDA, said keeping the interest of policy-holders, the norms for agents’ appointments should be followed.

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